filter by Category

In his memoirs, Treasure in Clay, Bishop Fulton Sheen (1895–1979) tells of giving instructions in the Catholic Faith to a young woman. During the lesson on confession, the young woman suddenly jumped from her chair and yelled at Bishop Sheen that she would never become Catholic because of what he had told her about confession. Sheen waited for her to...

By nature I tend to be a rather contrary person. Or, as my father sometimes put it, I tend to end up "crosswise in the door" when told that a particular direction is one in which I must go. Perhaps then it is no surprise that I kind of liked wearing a veil to Mass . . . until I was told I had to do it. Ever since then the subject makes me bristle.

The first time I wore a headcovering to Mass was soon after my conversion in 1996. A friend invited me to a diocesan-approved Tridentine...

You want to see a ruckus in Catholic cyberspace? All you have to do is link together the words Catholic and modesty or, better, Blessed Virgin and pants. Simcha Fisher, who writes for the National Catholic Register, rode on the skirt-tails of "Pants!" to Catholic blogging superstardom a few years back with a couple of hysterical posts on the subject (...

Last June, I made my First Promise as a member of the Secular Order of Discalced Carmelites. The First Promise to the local community is for three years, at the end of which (God willing) the community may invite me to make a Definitive Promise, for life.

Because secular Carmelites are considered to be full members of the Discalced Carmelites, according to their state in...